Gone in 60 Seconds

According to telecommunications corporation AT & T, over 70% of business calls are placed On Hold for an average of 45 to 60 seconds each. 60% of callers hang up, and

30% of those never call back. Think about that first figure for a second, excuse the pun… what do you think you could do within a minute?

You could fire off a few quick emails, send an SMS, have a snack and pour yourself a drink, maybe with a few seconds to spare. According to a popular Nicolas Cage film, you can even steal a fleet of cars, although the legal backlash probably doesn’t warrant experimenting with this. The point is: with a little thought, one minute can be more productive than you think.

A lot of companies will welcome you to their On Hold with something along the lines of “Thank you for calling ACME Company. We appreciate your call and thank you for holding.” Now I’m no call analyst, but I reckon the callers who hang up and never call back don’t get far beyond “Thank you for hol… *click*”

At Messages On Hold, we love nothing more than injecting a dose of personality into every single message we write. From a full four-minute production down to a menu prompt that’s only a few seconds long, any message can be made into something informative and creative that encourages callers to stay on the line instead of repulsing them. Next time you have us come up with a script, why not go in with an open mind and see how we make the most of every single second your callers are on that phone line?